La Malinche translated all that Motecuhzoma had said to Cortes. On page sixty-four of The Broken Spears it says, "Cortes replied in his strange and savage tongue- In other passages in the book it depicts the Spaniards as wild and uncivilized. This brings up another point that just as the Spaniards thought of the Aztecs as being barbaric, some Aztecs felt the same way about the Spaniards. The Aztecs also thought of the Spaniards as savages. Who would blame them? After all they must have heard stories of how the Spanish had killed thousands of indigenous people for apparently no reason, burning and pillaging all towns in his path. .
The Aztecs were unaware of the trickery that Cortes would use on them. He had to catch the Aztecs unaware. He told La Malinche to tell Motecuhzoma that, "There is nothing to fear tell him that we love him well and our hearts are contented." He took this to his advantage by lying to him. The Spaniards later grasped Motecuhzoma's hands and patted his back to show affection. The Aztecs were not at all prepared for an onslaught of fighting which would occur later on. .
The Spaniards knew that they could not take on the whole Aztec Empire since they were so many compared to the number of conquistadors. They decided to take Motecuhzoma prisoner and keep him hostage in order to control the Aztecs. These people did not know what was going on. As it says on page sixty-five, many ran away and went into hiding. The Spaniards already knew that their weapons caused much confusion and struck some fear in these native people, so they fired one of their canons and people ran and fled. They used weapons unknown to them which gave the Spanish a slight advantage by method of intimidation so the Aztecs would not try anything. The Spaniards did not immediately begin to attack the Aztecs yet because they knew they could be crushed because of the immense size of their army.